Security Leftovers
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LWN ☛ Security updates for Monday
Security updates have been issued by Fedora (cups, krb5, pgadmin4, python3.6, and yarnpkg), Mageia (freeradius, kernel, kmod-xtables-addons, kmod-virtualbox, and dwarves, kernel-linus, and squid), Red Hat (ghostscript, kernel, and less), SUSE (avahi, c-ares, cairo, cups, fdo-client, gdk-pixbuf, git, libarchive, openvswitch3, podman, polkit, python-black, python-Jinja2, python-urllib3, skopeo, squashfs, tiff, traceroute, and wget), and Ubuntu (linux, linux-azure, linux-azure-5.4, linux-bluefield, linux-gcp, linux-gcp-5.4, linux-gkeop, linux-ibm, linux-ibm-5.4, linux-kvm).
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Krebs On Security ☛ Researchers: Weak Security Defaults Enabled Squarespace Domains Hijacks
At least a dozen organizations with domain names at domain registrar Squarespace saw their websites hijacked last week. Squarespace bought all assets of Google Domains a year ago, but many customers still haven’t set up their new accounts. Experts say malicious hackers learned they could commandeer any migrated Squarespace accounts that hadn’t yet been registered, merely by supplying an email address tied to an existing domain.
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EFF ☛ EFF to FCC: SS7 is Vulnerable, and Telecoms Must Acknowledge That
When you roam onto different 2G or 3G networks, or send an SMS message internationally the SS7 system works behind the scenes to seamlessly route your calls and SMS messages. SS7 identifies the country code, locates the specific cell tower that your phone is using, and facilitates the connection. This intricate process involves multiple networks and enables you to communicate across borders, making international roaming and text messages possible. But even if you don’t roam internationally, send SMS messages, or use legacy 2G/3G networks, you may still be vulnerable to SS7 attacks because most telecommunications providers are still connected to it to support international roaming, even if they have turned off their own 2G and 3G networks. SS7 was not built with any security protocols, such as authentication or encryption, and has been exploited by governments, cyber mercenaries, and criminals to intercept and read SMS messages. As a result, many network operators have placed firewalls in order to protect users. However, there are no mandates or security requirements placed on the operators, so there is no mechanism to ensure that the public is safe.
Many companies treat your ownership of your phone number as a primary security authentication mechanism, or secondary through SMS two-factor authentication. An attacker could use SS7 attacks to intercept text messages and then gain access to your bank account, medical records, and other important accounts. Nefarious actors can also use SS7 attacks to track a target’s precise location anywhere in the world.
These vulnerabilities make SS7 a public safety issue. EFF strongly believes that it is in the best interest of the public for telecommunications companies to secure their SS7 networks and publicly audit them, while also moving to more secure technologies as soon as possible.
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Red Hat Official ☛ Red Hat’s path to post-quantum cryptography
This is exciting for the prospects it can provide in computing and at the same time terrifying in the volume of attacks and security breaches it could contribute to. Quantum computing will make attacks possible that are not currently practically achievable. For example, RSA-2048 could take more human lifetimes to crack with traditional computing resources than humans will exist. With quantum computing, however, cracking classical cryptography like RSA-2048 becomes not only possible, but achievable within a reasonable period of time.